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Envy, "(fangirl) the guys get so much yuri and there is so little yaoi"

Pride, "I'v watched XXX animez *sticks out tongue*"/"I've been watching anime since YYY"/"I've read the manga/novel/game, have every image/figure/poester/d0ll/magazine/staple/chitchensink related to them. <3"

There is a moral to be found: if you are a otaku yaoi girl watching a gonzo show you're going straight to hells. Also, the seven virtues and associated deamons as well as history for the seven sins can be found on wikipedia.

I love the idea, hopefully Solance does too. I like the ancient mythology ideas too, although it would be fun to stick with just the european ones since they are more fun with the family killing and orgies.

The Seven Deadly Sins could work, but how many Full Metal Alchemist banners would result of this?

I've thought about this a little bit, and I think that we should, more or less, follow what has gone before banner-wise... I'm leaning towards generic seasonal type banners or themes like the current banner set.

How about Horoscope? 12 of them to choose from, and each can have many different interpretations.

This might not be such a great idea. The theme implies everyone is to use some stupid symbol in their banner (yuk!) and also, I do not mean to turn this into something like a religious debate but, I do not really like the hole concept of horoscopes, I think they are a complete idiocy that weak hearted people waste their time on.

I know we have been thinking what theme we should use but maybe it would be a good idea to think about what kind of themes we should not use.

For example:

Themes should be international. If their not, even if we dump all the cultural differences in them there is still going to be one winner. This kind of theme is also going to influence people to vote for the version they consider cooler or they believe in (depending on the topic) instead of the best banners. There is no point in deciding the winning banners before anything actually gets made.

Themes with multiple items should imply all items are uncomparable items. Which is to say there is no preset ranking for them (in a zodiac/horoscope theme you could say dragon is ranked highest and so on).

Themes should not force extra unnecesery garbage that proves the banner is from that theme (eg. zodiac symbols, wierd circles and so on, in a zodiac theme).

The theme should be as easy and accessible as possible when aproched from the idea that "we are a anime community". I for one would hate to see all the banners on top devoid of anime characters (or anything anime) because the (cool) theme chosen is so unused in anime there is no material to go by (the theme being used by this one anime is equally pointless).

The theme should imply that the possible end results can be traced back to it (or the resulting banners can be easily tagged with the themes topic). If we have a zodiac themed contest we are likely to get a lot of animal banners, we might end up with valid tags such as "animal planet", "dragons & tigers", "zoo" and so on, but if "zodiac" is not among them what was the point of having it in the first place. We might have gotten better results just calling it "dragon & tigers" if thats all people are likely to make.

Themes should be easy, anything that classifies as a "Oh! do you think you can do that?" contest is bad.

Themes should not require more then one element to be interpreted. A zodiac theme can imply you have all the zodiac in it or just simply more then one with fuzzy logic for between (there is no use to waste the contest to see if things work).

Themes should be easily understood, and not have multiple interpretations.

[*]Themes with multiple items should imply all items are uncomparable items. Which is to say there is no preset ranking for them (in a zodiac/horoscope theme you could say dragon is ranked highest and so on).

Well, I think it's up to everyone's preference. That's the same with every theme, one will vote for a specific banner just because there's his/her favorite character on it, and not because of the overall beauty of the banner itself, which is kind of sad...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cats

[*]Themes should not force extra unnecesery garbage that proves the banner is from that theme (eg. zodiac symbols, wierd circles and so on, in a zodiac theme).

Symbols, weird circles don't necessary need to be there, that is enough

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cats

[*]The theme should be as easy and accessible as possible when aproched from the idea that "we are a anime community". I for one would hate to see all the banners on top devoid of anime characters (or anything anime) because the (cool) theme chosen is so unused in anime there is no material to go by (the theme being used by this one anime is equally pointless).

Of course, the material used will be anime related, it has been and will always be the case

Well, don't think too much about it, it will just make the theme finding unpleasant Now that we have a longue list of themes, we can as well chose one from them. A simple theme doesn't mean that the banner will be simple or not nice.
We're a bunch of creative artists here, so just one word is enough to unleash our creativity I guess

lol, as soon as I heard zodiac, I, like Hellychan, thought 'Fruits Basket'
'that' would be kyon, tohru, and yuki.
Though I do think zodiac might be a little limiting since I don't know that many shows that feature zodiac-like characters:
fruits basket, Sumomomo Momomo: Chijou Saikyou no Yome, 12 Senshi Bakuretsu Eto Ranger... people probably know more series than that though >.<

They can be used for a longer period time and not just 1 shots. Perhaps hold an annual banner contest every 3 months and the top 3 banners from the contest would be displayed each month. Of course that can be tweaked from 3 months to a monthly with slight differences or sub-theme for each month.

They can be used for a longer period time and not just 1 shots. Perhaps hold an annual banner contest every 3 months and the top 3 banners from the contest would be displayed each month. Of course that can be tweaked from 3 months to a monthly with slight differences or sub-theme for each month.

That's a great suggestion! I believe this would make banner contest more interesting than ever and with lots of fresh ideas!

But even if you say that, someone still has to actually run it. We used to run the contest about that frequently but it becomes too much work after a while. Solace is running the next one because of a planned gap in the SOTM contest. I don't think (he can correct me) that he will have the time to do such a thing, long term, every few months. Takes a lot of effort to run the contests. Might be more practical if I can automate some of the more arduous tasks, but even then...

I just like to say that I'm thrilled about banner contest. *highfives Hellychan* I'm so gonna get a guy up there!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eps~

I second seasonal banners.

They can be used for a longer period time and not just 1 shots. Perhaps hold an annual banner contest every 3 months and the top 3 banners from the contest would be displayed each month. Of course that can be tweaked from 3 months to a monthly with slight differences or sub-theme for each month.

I'm a person who doesn't like change, and so I prefer the old theme: seasons. I agree with Eps~ about holding contest every 3 months, but NightWish has a point... Poor Solace.

__________________

I realized I have too many interests/ideas/emotions to convey in one sig.

Indeed it's a tough job to do it, but I do believe there are many capable and willing people to run the contest. It's very hard to run the contest single handedly, I agree, but that's why I'd suggest like 3 people handling it. For instance one guy can't due to real life issues - exams, job, other stuff, then the other two or more can make it happen. Hell, I can probably do it - if I manage to convince escimo and Riker to go along

That aside, hopefully (nothing is certain) the first contest will start next month.

I do not like the "lets go back to seasons" idea. The Sky banners worked really well and they're still working well, I can not say the same for the old season sets...

Quote:

Originally Posted by NightWish

Might be more [practical] if I can automate some of the more arduous tasks, but even then...

That may be easily done but, depending on how far you go, it may turn into a forum feature rather then a contest (which would take some of the novelty out of it). Unless it turns into something like how Kairin images are handled (ie. new banners each time someone submits new banners) I think we should still have it social and involving rather then automated.

That said, I do not really see how moderating the entire forum (what you normally do) is easier then moderating a small contest. I really think it has more to do with how you go about it rather then it being particularly hard to do.

Current system

(somehow determine the theme)

Begin entry phase

Look at it every day and count posts that have the text "final entry"

Remember each one and watch out for people who edit their "final entry" after a few days/pages.

Post all entries in one thread and ask people to pick 3

Count each and every post, and check to confirm the numbers and name are correct

Post the results

Requires: constant attention, meticulous manual labor.

Alternative system

A forum announcement is made each step.

Start "Theme suggestion" thread Themes are posted as lists. If only one theme is suggested that is still posted as a list with one item.

Anything posted in the "Banner criticism" is simply to the benefit of the makers of the banners (feedback, nit picking, refining and so on) there is no guarantee they will even be noticed by the contests hosts.

In the "Banner submission" thread everyone can have only one post and all images in that post are considered final. The first post details requirements for the banners.

Any banner that does not meet the set requirements is disqualified.

If you have multiple posts (presuming undeleted) you are disqualified from the contest.

If you post more banners then the maximum allowed for each contestant all of your banners are disqualified.

The rules are enforced and banners disqualified only after the period of 5 weeks (submission period), when the thread is closed. People are free to notify their friends of the errors though private messaging or profile messaging or any other means (other then posting directly in the "Banner Submission") so as to correct them.